Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

The Chuck Norris Memorial Film Festival continues...

"Invasion U.S.A." (1985)
Chuck is a former CIA agent who's called back to active duty when his old enemy (Richard Lynch) leads an army of terrorists in a series of attacks on U.S. soil.
"Invasion U.S.A." was pretty much Chuck's peak of bearded bad-assery. It's probably the biggest budget Norris film, and the mayhem is non stop and impressive. A gloriously absurd action packed epic that's still a ton of fun today.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Code Of Silence" (1985)
Chuck Norris had a great year in 1985. In addition to saving America in "Invasion USA," he also starred in this cool, gritty, down-to-earth cop thriller as Eddie Cusack, a straight arrow Chicago detective who gets caught in the middle of a war between two rival Mob families, while also dealing with a cover-up within his own department.
This movie was originally pitched as a potential "Dirty Harry" sequel, but when Clint passed on it, it fell into Chuck's lap. Apparently this was one of his favorite films, because it gave him a chance to stretch as an actor instead of playing yet another mindless butt kicker (though he gets to do plenty of that, too!)
Directed by Andrew Davis, who would go on to do "Under Siege" with Steven Seagal and "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford. Quality stuff, well worth revisiting.

[chainsaw midget]

Naked Zombie Girl

Actually a misleading title.  The girl is not a zombie.  She is, however, naked for most of the flick.  It's just a short, about twenty minutes or so and filmed with a grindhouse style that sometimes seems to fight back and forth between Romero and Evil Dead.

The main character is attacked by zombies, looses her dress, and fights them off with a chainsaw.  Not a lot of story.  Considering she's naked for most of it, there's not a lot of actual nudity either, as most of the time she's shot from the waist up and has her hair covering her chest. 

Lots of film distortion though, like you're watching a film reel that's been kept in the trunk of somebody's car for the last decade or two.

[M.10rda]

THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE WEST (1958):
Another offbeat Philip Yordan screenplay, 'cause THE CHASE was decent. This one's a very noir Western, which automatically makes it more interesting to me than the standard-issue John Wayne-type stuff of the era. Officially it's a genre-switching remake of KISS OF DEATH (remade again in the 90s under the original title and urban setting, w/ Nicolas Cage as the psycho bad guy). I didn't recall that when I started watching and had to Google to confirm it, as THE FIEND takes a lot of liberties with KOD's plot, and probably for the better.

Really it's a post-heist thriller w/ the craziest member of a gang of bandits (the eponymous "Fiend") rounding up the proceeds of the last big job, with no partners or elderly ladies or unborn fetuses safe from his sadistic killing spree. One former affiliate yearns to escape his past and settle down as a rancher, but the long arm of the law presses him into service to help put an end to the Fiend's one-man crimewave. Things get slightly more complicated than that, w/ better dialogue and a bit greater psychological complexity than most westerns of the 50s. Crisp widescreen B+W photography makes TFWWTW look like a grander, more serious film than it actually is. (Some shots recall Welles or Kurosawa flicks.) The acting is mostly across the spectrum from competent to dull to bad. (The female lead kinda' sucks.)

But! If you're gonna' make a movie called THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE WEST, you gotta' have a compelling, watchable title character....... and if TFWWTW is remembered at all today, it's solely on account of that central performance. "The Fiend" is a high-pitched, whiny, unstable, neurotic, psychotic, totally loathsome piece of work... played by none other than legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans in one of his few early onscreen gigs and only lead role. His performance feels straight out of the Actors' Studio - Evans' antagonist could easily pass for the annoying younger brother of the twitchy nut played by (Evans' associate) Jack Nicholson in THE SHOOTING. Maybe Evans' wasn't ever going to be a Hollywood leading man, but he did a good job making me hate the guts of the guy he plays here.

3/5    Directed by Gordon Douglas of THEM! fame.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Clue" (1985)
In 1950s New England, six strangers are summoned to a creepy old mansion for a dinner party. When their host is mysteriously murdered, the group tries to figure out who the killer is while bodies continue to pile up.
Based on the popular murder-mystery board game, this slap-stick parody of old fashioned "whodunit" films sports an impressive cast that includes Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, and Michael McKean. It was released with a unique gimmick -- the movie had three different endings (each with a different character revealed as the murderer), depending on which theater you saw it in.
I don't believe I ever played the board game, but I decided to check this one out after reading Tim Curry's autobiography Vagabond, in which he says "Clue" was his favorite out of all his films. I can see why, because it was lots of fun.

[Rev. Powell]

Sherlock Jr. (1924): A film projectionist who wants to be a detective falls asleep and imagines himself entering the movie onscreen, where he's a famous sleuth. Classic slapstick gags, inventive illusions, trick pool shots, and unwise death-defying stunts from Buster Keaton fill this charming and innovative short feature. Finally got this silent classic under my belt. 4.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Dark Angel AKA I Come in Peace (1990) - When I finished this, the next movie feature suggested Highlander, The Wraith, and like 6 Chuck Norris movies. That kind of gives you an idea of what this one was like. I had for some reason thought it was from 2000, but it's a bit more impressive for 1990 and easier to forgive some of the problems.

Those problems being most obviously the star Dolph Lundgren, who is charming enough and obviously up to the task in terms of physical conditioning, but often delivers his lines awkwardly and with little thought. Having him just say "I must break you." in Rocky 4 was probably a good idea. Comedian Brian Benben as the sidekick actually works pretty well. He mostly plays it straight, which was very refreshing. There was one good joke though, when they are car chased on to the sidewalk and he's like "Get back on the street!" then looks over and sees the villain on the street "Stay on the sidewalk, stay on the sidewalk" I mean it's not Seinfeld level, but I chuckled.

The pace is little slow and if it had just been a cop movie I'd probably give it a thumbs down, but there's a whole sci fi element with an alien who's sucking endorphins out of human beings and has these insane disks that are like martian throwing stars. I watched it in one night. It was a long night, but I did do it.

Dolphin Lundgren haha

4.35 /5

It could have used more hot girls, but I can't lie it was pretty entertaining. It had some fairly massive explosions, for example.

[Rev. Powell]

ALPHA (2025): Young teenager Alpha gets a homemade tattoo, and her doctor mother obsesses over the possibility that she may have contacted a disease that will turn her into a statue; meanwhile, her heroin addict uncle comes to stay with the family. Julia Ducournau's followup to the amazing TITANE is well-written, well-acted, well-shot, and well-scored, but something is holding it back from greatness; I think the problem is that, this time around, the surrealistic touches detract from rather than enhance the delicate story she means to tell. 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

I really liked I COME IN PEACE when I saw it on VHS, probably in '91. I was 14, of course. I always enjoyed Brian Benben from DREAM ON - he's kind of a one-note dude, that note being "short king Jerry Seinfeld", though Jerry Seinfeld never played a reasonably tough cop in an action movie and was never an actual romantic lead (Benben had poop-tons of nekkid sex scenes on DREAM ON.......). And I thought Dolph was pretty legit for the limited range required of him in I COME IN PEACE, and he'd get better in later films. Dolph is okay by me. Plus the ending delivers the goods!

Question for Lester of anyone else who's seen I COME IN PEACE:
Have you also seen SPLIT SECOND (1992 or '93) starring Rutger Hauer?
Exact same movie - like - a beat-by-beat remake of I COME IN PEACE - same renegade cop played with an incongruous accent (Hauer instead of Lundgren), exact same comedy relief partner, same unnecessary hot girlfriend character tagging along illogically, exact same plot structure - it even ends in a sewer/underground! The only difference is that in I COME IN PEACE they're fighting a T-800 and in SPLIT SECOND they're fighting a xenomorph. Otherwise, carbon copy movie - even by the standards of the carbon-copy-happy late-80s/early-90s movie business.